Guild Wars 2

I’ve noticed that my character will mini-sprint after landing or standing still. The sprint is about 1, maybe 2 steps – just enough to screw with your timing.

Is this intentional?

I seem to notice this too but I think it is actually due to sudden changes in framerate. This might also explain why some people are getting motion sickness specifically in the SAB.

My theory at least, is if you have lower end hardware you might normally get a consistent 30 fps in game, but in the SAB there are some very simple scenes that will sporadically kick up your framerate (I have seen it maxing out at my vsync rate of 85).

I have noticed this occassionally too. I think it happens after a kill.

Sometimes, if there is a lot going on and my game hasn’t fully loaded all the surrounding characters and animations yet, the “dodge” animation will simply display as my character sprinting in the direction of the dodge rather than doing the proper roll. Could this be what’s going on?

That also happens in the world of Tyria. :P
When you are in combat, you move a little slower.
Once you get out of combat, you start running faster. The running becoming faster it’s like a little mini-sprint, because we have to percept the change of pace.

The same thing happens in SAB.

pardalgod.9610:

That also happens in the world of Tyria. :P
When you are in combat, you move a little slower.
Once you get out of combat, you start running faster. The running becoming faster it’s like a little mini-sprint, because we have to percept the change of pace.

The same thing happens in SAB.

i thought you slow down cause you are in combat. this is to prevent an easy escape. which is not the same as here.

That’s funny why can’t you deactivate the movement debuff upon combat? Is this part of the GW2 engine or caused by something different?

I know you are the wrong person to ask but i’m getting more and more experienced in programming © and such issues really do spark my interest

Edit2: i meant C the programming language but you appearantly can’t use brackets like that.

Edit: Maybe there are some programmers/game developers in our community that could awnser my question? :0

It would be a limitation with the engine. What they’re capable of doing is limited to the features made available to them. In this case, the run speed is probably directly tied to being in combat, which occurs when you take damage or attack. To work around that, they would have either had to change how combat works, which would require a modification to the core system, or do what they did and go with a workaround. The workaround is the easier method, but the more they do it, the messier it gets, until it eventually gets so bad that a change to the engine becomes required.

Restrictions like that are common, since the feature you now want wasn’t originally expected when the system was designed, or it was, but it wasn’t important enough to justify. If everything was always designed to be 100% flexible, nothing would ever get finished on time.

An alternative workaround they could have gone with would be to keep you in combat the entire time. A debuff for example will keep you in combat for its entire duration. They could have applied a debuff on entry that’s removed on exit to keep you in constant combat, and then modified the movement speed.

Josh Foreman.8250:

It’s probably the speed buff we have to apply to you after combat or taking damage. That’s how we work around the ‘combat mode’ that is part of the GW2 system.

The combat mode slow down should be removed from the entire game, not just SAB. It is an extremely frustrating mechanic, that makes any jumping puzzle that contains enemies far more frustrating than it needs to be.

I don’t even understand what the purpose of combat slowdown is. But I’m glad you managed to implement a work around for SAB. Now for the rest of the game.

Alternatively, a buff that disables it near any PVE jumping puzzles would also be a welcome addition.

At the Mad queen malafide: tge purpose is obvious O.o they want to discourage endless running and chasing. You could easily outrun mobs and so on… but you are right i dislike it too :P

At Healix: Well i hope you mind my uneducated question because i really have no idea how an engine works or what restrictions it is bound by but: why not use a simple if-loop to prevent players under SAB transformation to suffer movementspeed debuff?

Josh Foreman.8250:

It’s probably the speed buff we have to apply to you after combat or taking damage. That’s how we work around the ‘combat mode’ that is part of the GW2 system. Notice that you don’t slow down in SAB when you attack monsters? That’s because we’re giving you a speed buff of just the right amount to compensate for the combat slow down. But the system isn’t perfect because we can’t call a script to the exact moment the slow down occurs, so there can be split-second overlaps where you still have our SAB speed boost but you’re also exiting the combat slow down, resulting in a momentary surge. You would be shocked at the amount of crazy work-arounds we had to pull off to get SAB as platform-like as we did.

So that’s how it works, huh? Makes sense. I definately notice this issue most when I run past enemies, though its odd that I’m getting into combat with them at all if they don’t hit me nor do I attack them. Thats not usually how it works in the open world, if you don’t get hit or attack yourself you usually won’t enter combat. Guess SAB just operates differently.

Seems kind of odd that the combat slowdown is such a core aspect of the game it can’t even be disabled. Kudos to you and your team for working around it, though. Minus this issue (which isn’t that big a deal) you got it pretty much perfect.

Sounds like there should be an internal boolean to disable combat mode in order to make things like SAB easier to develop in the future.

Josh Foreman.8250:

It’s probably the speed buff we have to apply to you after combat or taking damage. That’s how we work around the ‘combat mode’ that is part of the GW2 system. Notice that you don’t slow down in SAB when you attack monsters? That’s because we’re giving you a speed buff of just the right amount to compensate for the combat slow down. But the system isn’t perfect because we can’t call a script to the exact moment the slow down occurs, so there can be split-second overlaps where you still have our SAB speed boost but you’re also exiting the combat slow down, resulting in a momentary surge. You would be shocked at the amount of crazy work-arounds we had to pull off to get SAB as platform-like as we did.

I actually most noticed this on entering combat actually. There’s occasionally a split second delay for me, before the speed boost applies. I’ve often stopped to wonder… “Huh, why did I slow down there?”

Now I know why!

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

The combat mode slow down should be removed from the entire game, not just SAB. It is an extremely frustrating mechanic, that makes any jumping puzzle that contains enemies far more frustrating than it needs to be.

I don’t even understand what the purpose of combat slowdown is. But I’m glad you managed to implement a work around for SAB. Now for the rest of the game.

Alternatively, a buff that disables it near any PVE jumping puzzles would also be a welcome addition.

The problem with removing it from jumping puzzles is that some puzzles specifically use the mechanic as part of the challenge. I suppose you can have it replaced by some other method of slowing the player and shortening jumps, but I would not want to see it go away entirely.

It’s only noticeable enough to be amusing, although you could potentially exploit it somewhere down the line. I fully endorse this hack.

Tanek.5983:

The problem with removing it from jumping puzzles is that some puzzles specifically use the mechanic as part of the challenge. I suppose you can have it replaced by some other method of slowing the player and shortening jumps, but I would not want to see it go away entirely.

I don’t remember encountering any puzzles that do this, and I have completed every jumping challenge in the game (except for guild puzzles).

I did however notice several jumping puzzles that make their jumps impossible to do due to this mechanic, probably unintentionally. For example, Griffonrook Run relies entirely on avoiding the griffons and not getting hit. But sometimes the game still assumes you are in combat, thus decreasing how far you jump, and making the jump impossible. I have died so many times because of this.

Josh Foreman.8250:

It’s probably the speed buff we have to apply to you after combat or taking damage. That’s how we work around the ‘combat mode’ that is part of the GW2 system. Notice that you don’t slow down in SAB when you attack monsters? That’s because we’re giving you a speed buff of just the right amount to compensate for the combat slow down. But the system isn’t perfect because we can’t call a script to the exact moment the slow down occurs, so there can be split-second overlaps where you still have our SAB speed boost but you’re also exiting the combat slow down, resulting in a momentary surge. You would be shocked at the amount of crazy work-arounds we had to pull off to get SAB as platform-like as we did.

Have you considered having the player always be in combat inside SAB and just having the speed boost be permanent?

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Tanek.5983:

The problem with removing it from jumping puzzles is that some puzzles specifically use the mechanic as part of the challenge. I suppose you can have it replaced by some other method of slowing the player and shortening jumps, but I would not want to see it go away entirely.

I don’t remember encountering any puzzles that do this, and I have completed every jumping challenge in the game (except for guild puzzles).

I did however notice several jumping puzzles that make their jumps impossible to do due to this mechanic, probably unintentionally. For example, Griffonrook Run relies entirely on avoiding the griffons and not getting hit. But sometimes the game still assumes you are in combat, thus decreasing how far you jump, and making the jump impossible. I have died so many times because of this.

Hmm. I have not done that one yet. I’ll have to put it on my search list.

One I was thinking of that uses combat and other slows on purpose is Goemm’s Lab. It may be that others are unintentionally harder due to the mechanic.

To get back closer to topic, though, I do think slowing a character in combat should stay outside the SAB. Inside, maybe they will find ways to smooth it out a bit for a future release.

I don’t think I made any combat-speed impossible jumps in Griffonrook. Though I did make finding and using the speed boost eggs an important part of the strategy.

What speed boost eggs?